What Do We Know about God?: Evidence from the Hebrew Scriptures

By Michael J. Lowis and Rev. Albert Jewell

God has been around for a long time--in fact from the very beginning--but what do we actually know about him? Perhaps this is a silly question, because many people will regard the God of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam as unknowable. Nevertheless, this book explores the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament) to unearth just what is revealed about the nature and persona of the Deity. Early chapters discuss the first signs of religious beliefs, and the origins of the major religions. Ten chapters are devoted to what the Scriptures reveal about God's origin, attributes, and activities. These include miracles, making laws, punishing, rewarding, answering prayers, and predicting a future Messiah. A final chapter summarizes and draws conclusions. The sheer number of details gleaned from the biblical texts helps the reader to see God as an entity, with a personality who has attributes, likes, and dislikes. He rejoices, but also laments; he has a presence, he is available, he hears our prayers. Those who were a little unsure about the authenticity of God should have their confidence in him strengthened by the amount of information presented. They can then explore this further for themselves.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Resource Publications
• Release date: Sep 26, 2017
• ISBN: 9781532633607

Michael J. Lowis

Michael J. Lowis holds a doctorate in psychology, and has recently completed his studies for a theology degree. Although now retired from full-time work as a university lecturer in the UK, he is retained in an honorary position at the University of the Highlands and Islands, Scotland. Dr Lowis has authored over fifty academic articles and book chapters on both religious and secular topics. His first book was The Gospel Miracles: What really happened?

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What Do We Know about God?

Evidence from the Hebrew Scriptures

Michael J. Lowis

Foreword by Albert Jewell

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What Do We Know about God?

Evidence from the Hebrew Scriptures

Copyright © 2017 Michael J. Lowis. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical publications or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher. Write: Permissions, Wipf and Stock Publishers, 199 W. 8th Ave., Suite 3, Eugene, OR 97401.

Resource Publications

An Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers

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paperback isbn: 978-1-5326-3359-1

hardcover isbn: 978-1-5326-3361-4

ebook isbn: 978-1-5326-3360-7

Manufactured in the U.S.A. January 15, 2018

Most of the scripture quotations are taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version (Anglicised Edition).

Copyright © 1979, 1984, 2011 by Biblica (formally International Bible Society). Used by permission of Hodder & Stoughton Publishers, an Hachette UK company. All rights reserved.

‘NIV’ is a registered trademark of Biblica (formally International Society).

UK trademark number 1448790

Table of Contents

Title Page

Foreword

Preface

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Chapter 1: First Signs of Religious Beliefs

Chapter 2: Origins of the Major Religions

Chapter 3: Reliability of the Hebrew Scriptures

Chapter 4: History of the Books Consulted

Chapter 5: God’s Origin, and Name

Chapter 6: God’s Attributes

Chapter 7: What God Does—Creation

Chapter 8: Nature Miracles

Chapter 9: Healing Miracles

Chapter 10: God’s Laws

Chapter 11: Judgment and Punishment

Chapter 12: Rewards for the Faithful

Chapter 13: Messianic Prophesies

Chapter 14: God Answers Prayers

Chapter 15: So What Do Know about God?

Bibliography

Other titles by Michael J. Lowis

The Gospel Miracles: What Really Happened?

Euthanasia, Suicide, and Despair: Can the Bible Help?

Ageing Disgracefully, With Grace

Twenty Years in South Africa: An Immigrant’s Tale

Foreword

Anyone attempting to write a book on God is either very brave or rather foolhardy. However, Michael Lowis has not been daunted in this self-imposed task. What is required is a complex combination of qualifications: theologian, Bible scholar, inter-faith student, anthropologist, historian, philosopher and psychologist. Lowis appears to be well qualified across the board.

Writing as a Christian, he wisely restricts his study to the Hebrew scriptures which he takes as the basis for the two other Abrahamic ‘religions of the book’, Christianity and Islam. In so doing he displays an almost encyclopaedic knowledge of his subject and an awareness of what many traditional and modern scholars have to say. All Old Testament books are covered by means of an impressive examination of what they have to tell us of the attributes of God who emerges as a very real rather than shadowy figure.

The writer is not afraid to raise and address troubling issues such as the doubts as to the veracity of scriptures which evolved over many centuries necessarily raise or regarding how God may be expected to answer prayers without turning human beings into mere puppets.

Lowis writes primarily for two groups: those who are questioners when it comes to faith in God and Christians who wish to delve more deeply into the God they worship. After helpfully displaying the evidence he rightly leaves his readers to make their own minds up.

It is truly amazing what he manages to include in little more than a hundred pages!

Rev Dr Albert Jewell

Leeds

United Kingdom

Preface

God has been around for a long time—in fact from the very beginning—but what do we know about him? Perhaps this is a silly question, because the God of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam is regarded as unknowable. It does, however, require a lot of confidence to praise, worship, and thank something or someone that is unknowable. The faithful pray either silently or audibly, believing that their words will be heard and their pleas answered.

Imagine a conversation between a man who has been living in isolation (or was from another planet), and who has not received any teaching about God. He encounters a woman who is praying aloud. Excuse me madam, the stranger says, I don’t see anyone else nearby. To whom are you talking?

I am praying to my God, replies the woman.

But where is this God?

He is in heaven.

Can we go there to meet him in person?

Heaven is not a place you can visit whilst you are still alive and on this earth, but we do hope to meet him in our next life one day.

Alright, I don’t really understand, but what sort of person is this God of yours?

"He is invisible, but at the same time he is everywhere, all powerful, and he knows everything. Actually, we should not be using words like he and him, but we only continue to do so because the ancients started this convention, and they were very patriarchal."

"Hmm, I am still puzzled why you wish to communicate with someone who you can’t see, and can’t visit, yet seem to be convinced exists. What do you know about this God?"

"Well, there is quite a lot about him written in a book called The Bible, but it is often rather cryptic and needs some effort to interpret at times."

That is very interesting, thank you. I would like to buy a copy of this book, and read about your God for myself. And with that, the stranger wanders off to find the nearest bookseller, in order to learn more about the Almighty.

Apologies for this rather simple little narrative, but it caused me to think just how I would respond if I were the one who was praying, and was questioned by someone who really had no understanding of what I was doing. If I was asked what God was like, what were his qualities and attributes, what did he do, and how do we know all this, just how would I respond?

This prompted me to undertake the task of trying to find out all I could about the nature and character of God, through a careful and detailed study of the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament). Of course, Christians will also turn to the New Testament, believing that Jesus Christ was the Son of God, and that Jesus spoke quite a lot about the one who he referred to as Our Father in heaven. But this would not satisfy the Jews or Muslims, who acknowledge the older Scriptures, but do not accept that Jesus was the Son of God.

Thus, in order to be acceptable to adherents of each of the faiths that acknowledge Abraham as their founder, I decided to restrict my quest to the Hebrew Scriptures, except for a few occasions where a New Testament text clarifies a comment that appears in its older companion.

My intention throughout this exercise was to maintain an open mind and, where appropriate, be skeptical and even critical of what has been written in the Bible. Many otherwise religious people do not believe everything they are supposed to, and my own approach was to try to find convincing evidence, rather than just accept everything on faith. To help in this quest, many additional sources were consulted, and the views of other scholars and commentators were taken into account when reporting the findings. These are referenced within the text, and there is an extensive bibliography at the end of the book that can be used as a resource by those who may wish to undertake further study of this subject for themselves.

The exercise revealed an unanticipated amount of detail, and the findings form the main body of the present book. It should be emphasised, as I have done in this account, that this was not an attempt to anthropomorphize God by reducing his qualities down to the level that can be applied to mere mortals. Nevertheless, it may help one to know God, and feel closer to him, if we can use at least a few familiar human terms to describe some of his qualities.

The first chapters in this book review some of the earliest signs that could indicate religious beliefs, and these date back a surprisingly long time. Following from this, there are brief accounts of the origins and key beliefs of each of the five major world religions. Before embarking on an analysis of the Scriptures, factors that can influence the reliability of the texts are reviewed. Often some detailed exegesis is needed to uncover what was originally written, and under what circumstances. The next chapter summarizes the dates, authors, and main topics of each of the books in the Hebrew Scriptures that yielded pertinent information for this study.

How did the God of Abraham originate? Did he have a beginning? What is his name? These questions are debated in chapter 5, before the enquiry moves on to a discussion of the main attributes of God that are revealed in the Scriptures. Eight chapters then discuss the outcome of the search for evidence of what God does. These start, appropriately, with the topic of creation, including how the biblical account compares with the scientific view. Highly pertinent is the question: what was there right at the beginning? Miracles where the laws of nature appear to have been overridden are then reviewed, followed by the healing miracles. In both cases, scientific and medical advances may offer rational explanations for what really happened.

The presence of 613 laws in the Scriptures begs the question: how many of these came straight from God? The enquiry then moves on to how God judges and punishes sinners, but also rewards for the faithful. The first of the remaining two topics concerns the prophesies that a Messiah will come, some of which bear a remarkable resemblance to subsequent events in the life of Jesus. Finally, the discussion centers on the numerous references to prayer, and the confidence exhibited by many Scripture writers that they are both heard, and responded to.

The final chapter summarizes what the enquiry has revealed about the God of Abraham, before ending with a brief mention of two more intriguing questions. These are: has his audible voice ever been heard, and has anyone seen the personhood of God? There are indeed some clues regarding these issues in the Scriptures. It is concluded that, hopefully, this study has helped us to see God not as a just a remote entity, but instead has let us value him as a being with tangible characteristics and a personality. When we feel that we can anticipate the likes, dislikes, and responses of individuals, we can grow to know and trust them. Perhaps we can now be a little closer to regarding God in this way.

Michael J. Lowis

Northampton

United Kingdom

Acknowledgments

I am indebted to Rev Dr Albert Jewell, Visiting Research Fellow of Glyndwr University, Wrexham, Wales, for not only kindly agreeing to write the Foreword to this book, but also for his many helpful suggestions. Without his keen eye, embarrassing errors would have gone undetected.

My grateful thanks are also extended to Dr Teresa A. Fisher, Professor, Bronx Community College, for her corrections during the proof-reading stage.

There have been others who have patiently tolerated my questions, fired at them without warning, when I have struggled with particular issues. Some are mentioned in the text, but I am grateful to them all for their help.

Introduction

The answers to the very profound questions concerning how God began, what are his virtues, and what does he do, will depend very much on whether or not a person believes in a one, supreme, creator deity as portrayed in the holy texts of the Abrahamic religions. These comprise the major faiths of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, along with the Baha’i that originated in Iran, and the Rastafarians that started in Jamaica. For these adherents, the opening words of the Hebrew Scriptures, known by Christians as the Old Testament, provide a hint: In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth (Genesis 1:1; all biblical quotations taken from the New International Version, NIV, Bible unless otherwise stated).

These words suggest that God already existed in the beginning, presumably as a solitary entity, before the universe was created. The Gospel of John appears to confirm this with the passage: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God (John 1:1). Although this might be the best response a believer can offer about the origin of God, it still leaves us with a nagging feeling that the query has not been resolved. How, then, was God created? Can something be created out of nothing?

There are many religions in the world other than the Abrahamic group, and they often have their own varieties of god. Some are polytheistic, believing in more than one deity. For example, Jainism (in India) venerates five supreme beings, whilst Taoism (China) and Shintoism (Japan) each recognize multiple divine entities. Hinduism (India) has many male and female gods but, these are all generally regarded as being earthly manifestations of one chief god (see chapter 2). In addition, there are beliefs subsumed under the heading of earth religions. These include the worship of plants, animals, fertility gods, and other objects related to nature.

Being religious generally refers to adherence to the beliefs, practices and rituals of a traditional doctrine. Whilst this will usually imply those linked to a particular church denomination, strictly speaking the definition does not exclude devotion to a way of life, hobby, political party or other group that a person may hold dear. Spirituality is something different. It has been described as a way of being and experiencing that comes from the awareness of a transcendent dimension.¹ In turn, something that is transcendent is beyond or above the range of normal physical experience. Although there may be a significant overlap between the two, it is possible to have spiritual faith in a higher power whilst not necessarily being aligned to any orthodox religion.²

Those who have no feelings of spirituality, and do not acknowledge any deity or other object of worship, will be untroubled by the question of how God began. The idea that life originated according to evolutionary principles, and that human behavior developed in a way that helped to ensure the survival of the species, does not require the intervention of a divine being. Indeed, non-believers will maintain that we live in